


a darker shade of magic

by sapphfics



Series: you know such magical things (and nobody knows you within) [1]
Category: Barbie - All Media Types, Barbie Fairytopia (Movies)
Genre: ...yes you read those tags correctly, Ableism, Abuse, Angst, Attempted Murder, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-05 18:40:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19046158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: Despite what they might claim later on — when she has saved the world three times and they want the credit for raising her right — Elina remembers too much about her past to let her parents take anything from her again.Or: Elina, growing up





	a darker shade of magic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ErinacchiLove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinacchiLove/gifts).



Despite what they might claim later on — when she has saved the world three times and they want the credit for raising her right — Elina remembers too much about her past to let her parents take anything from her again. 

Fae cannot forget. It is their curse. 

Elina is born in Fairy Town in a bitter winter. Her mother tries to kill her the second she sees that her precious baby has no wings. She sees it as merciful. She pours a little salt into Elina’s buttercup milk, but Elina spat it straight out, and sleeps with her eyes open until after the Flight of Spring. To hear her Mother lament this, it’s clear she wishes the poison had worked. 

Back then, you hardly ever saw the sun in Fairy Town, and the sky was too dark to even glimpse the rainbow that could help Elina escape. 

_I might feel safer in the mortal world,_ she considers. _They might not think I am worthless for not having wings. They might not call me a changeling, or freak, or anything at all. Maybe I’m one of them. That might be nice, to belong somewhere._

But the Fae who have gone over the rainbow never come back. That was more terrifying than anything; the thought of being completely and utterly alone in a world that made no sense to her, and never would. 

Elina does not wish for much. She only wants a friend. 

When Elina and her parents live there, Fairy Town’s guardian is not Azura. He is named Viorel, and he will one day be Azura’s mentor, but he will not pass on his harshness and cruelty. Elina is grateful for that. 

Her parents get her Bibble as a companion so they don’t have to stay with her at home as much, or at all. Bibble’s fur is soft but he’s almost as young as Elina is, so she becomes self sufficient. When she is old enough to walk the streets unaccompanied, Viorel spreads a rumour that if Elina was touched by anyone, the perpetrator’s own wings would fall off. 

Soon afterwards, Viorel dies in his home overnight. 

Most fae do not die naturally, so the town turn on her. Not openly, they are too proud for that, but they shut their windows and doors when she walks by. Her parents loose their jobs. Guards would harass her openly, and no one would say anything. One particularly nasty guard flirts with her, and when she refuses him, he takes it upon himself to rid the town of her for good. As she is walking home alone, as she always is, he stabs her in the stomach with an iron dagger. 

Somehow, she survives. He doesn’t even lose his position. Elina decides to take matters into her own hands, and brings him to a fae trial. 

But even then, no one believes her. The prosecutor claims that she must have stabbed herself in a fit of self loathing. 

Elina has always been a passive, quiet, unassuming thing, but when they accused her of that something inside her snapped. 

The power residing inside her from her lack of wings burst from her hands in a ray of blinding light. 

The guard looses half his face to burn scars. Elina does not regret it. 

The judge only sighs, and sends for a medic. “If you had wings, I would have them ripped off your back. Slowly.” 

That is one of the only times Elina feels glad to have been born. 

-:-

What feels exulting in the moment, she knows, is foolish in hindsight. Her blatant defiance would get back to the Enchantress, and that would lead to trouble for all of them. 

So, her parents decide to move them all to Flutterfield. It’s a strange choice, so far away from everything she has ever known or anything at all. Flutterfield is far away as from Fairy Town as they can hope to get, but the inhabitants are equally as cruel. Elina can handle the insults, as long as no one tries to kill her. She keeps the scar on her stomach as a reminder. 

Besides, at least Flutterfield is closer to the rainbow. It gives Elina comfort to stare at it from lying on top of a daisy, wondering what it would be like if she could leave. 

She’s still quite miserable until she meets Dandelion. 

Or rather, Dandelion finds her. 

The pixies are bothering her again, and she is so so tired. When Dandelion breaks a pixie’s nose in defence of her, Elina starts to cry. She feels pathetic. She doesn’t want others to get hurt because of her existence anymore, but she’s never had anyone defend her the way Dandelion does. 

Dandelion is a breath of fresh air, and beautiful too. Elina has wished for a friend her whole life, and perhaps, this beautiful fairy is her answer. 

“I can keep you safe,” Dandelion promises. “No one messes with me or my friends, not here.” 

Elina wants so desperately to believe her. “Why would you want to be friends with me?” 

“What can I say? You’re the most interesting being this awful place has going for it,” Dandelion says. “And you need a friend, don’t you? My mom saw you move in to Peony, and she said you looked so lonely. I wanna help you.” 

Elina nods. She hasn’t quite grasped the fact that other people acknowledge her existence in a positive way. “

-:-

Even now, far away from Fairy Town and iron and guards with too much power, her parents still won’t look at her. They never try for more children. She is too much of a disappointment. She hears them whispering at night, her father using harsh words like changeling. 

She doesn’t cry. It’s nothing she hasn’t heard from them before. 

(Elina still doesn’t know if he was right. She doesn’t want to know.)

Then, one morning, she wakes up and her parents are gone and Peony sings her the saddest song she has ever heard as she cries into her pillow.

**Author's Note:**

> how much of this is me projecting vs my own headcannons vs the jokes on the barbietopia podcast?? ...we just don’t know
> 
> this was actually meant to be femslash (elina/laverna because i’m Evil) but then...it became this somehow! apologies 
> 
> fic title is from a book by v. e. schwab and the series title is from the song ‘josefin’ by first aid kit (a great band and song btw)


End file.
